Knee Ligament Injury??

[mark1975]

Hi, I decided to post here in the hope of maybe geting a few answers. Basically I was involved in a bicycle accident 4 weeks ago, I was travelling down a hill ( 20mphish) skidded off my bike and hit a stationery car with my head! I realise I am very fortunate but while laying in the road I felt an instant pain in my knee. Paramedics, amulance etc all arrived and had a look at my knee and said it had swelled up instantly but they did not think it was broken and gave me gas and air, then they were a little concerned with my spine/neck so put me on a stretcher and whisked me off to hospital. All the time I was telling them it was my knee that was very painful. At the hospital I had x rays for my back/spine and was told it was bruising and gave me crutches and sent me on my way without looking at my knee. After a week I went back to to the doctors as I could hardly walk and my knee kept giving way and feeling very wobbly and unstable it was almost double in size. Doctors sent me straight to hospital as they said it looked like I had a torn MCL. At hospital the specialist pulled my leg a bit and made me swear and yelp then sent me off for x-rays, after that he told me I probably had a minor MCL tear and arranged some physio and told me to walk as best as I could on it and it will get better. Phyio gave me a few excercises to do and I have to go back in 2 weeks to see them again. I went back to work on Monday and walked on my leg as I thought it might do it good but it swelled up bigger than before and I was in a lot of pain. Got moved to a desk job for the rest of the week and the swelling has gone down a bit but it is about half the size again of my other knee but I just wanted to know.
How long is it normal for a knee to be swelled up for for a Minor MCL tear?
Why has the sweeling moved from Inside of my knee cap to the front of my knee and also around the outside and slightly above my knee?
I can walk and it gives way sometimes(not very often now) it just feels like it will, I am unable to twist it as it gives way straight away and feels like a very sharp pain?
How long normally does an Minor MCL tear/sprain take to heal?

Sorry this has been a bit of a long winded explanation and if you have got to the end then thank you

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[gcoe]

How long is it normal for a knee to be swelled up for for a Minor MCL tear?

sounds more than a minor MCL tear to me

Why has the sweeling moved from Inside of my knee cap to the front of my knee and also around the outside and slightly above my knee?

you have developed swelling inside the knee joint itself. This is what prduces the pattern of swelling you describe. The MCL is a big tough ligament on the inner ( medial) side of the knee, but not inside the knee. It should not produce this pattern of swelling. However it does attach to structures deep inside the knee such as the medial meniscus (often called the medial cartilage). So if the MCL is torn the The cartilage may have been disrupted at the same time or something else inside the knee may have been injured. This would be unlikely to show up on a simple xray.

I can walk and it gives way sometimes(not very often now) it just feels like it will, I am unable to twist it as it gives way straight away and feels like a very sharp pain?

The giving way is a common symptom with intra articular knee injuries and can be caused by either a mechanical fault or a nervous system reflex inhibition of the quads muscle that keeps you knee straight. This reflex is mediated by pain and swelling.

How long normally does an Minor MCL tear/sprain take to heal?

Ligaments are rather slow to heal but if it really is a minor one symptoms tend to die down in a matter of days. The full healing takes a lot longer - 6-12 weeks

However you clearly have more going on and you're right to be concerned about the diagnosis. It is common in the excitement of the accident for the medics to be more concerned about your spine and brain for obvious reasons - and things like this get overlooked. You have not received a proper work up your knee and an xray is insufficient testing. I would go to an orthopaeic surgeon again and get it fully looked at - probably needs an MRI to look inside the knee.

[mark1975]

Thank you for the reply. Now that has put my mind at ease a little bit with the explanations you give. I am going to contact my doctor tomorrow and see if I can get an appointment to see the orthopedic surgeon again. I was a little bit scared that I was making a big deal about this and in fact all it needed was time.

Once again thank you for the reply